Driver Z students turned away in droves

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This article was published 29/05/2025 (309 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dozens of tired teenagers and parents waited out in the cold Wednesday morning, equipped with hoodies, blankets, lawn chairs and paperwork — all for a shot of getting a spot in Manitoba Public Insurance’s Driver Z program.

“Terrible system,” said 41-year-old Shad Clisby after his son was turned away at Guild Insurance Group on Victoria Avenue. “It sucks.”

Clisby, who lined up with his son at 3:45 a.m., was one of about 75 people, including about 40 prospective driving students, standing in front of Guild’s doors to enrol in the program. Some people showed up as early as 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Clisby said his 15-year-old son was the 13th student in line, and still didn’t get a spot. He was turned away 13 minutes after the office opened at 8 a.m. because all the spots had already been taken.

“It’s a tough thing to get into. You shouldn’t have to come and stand in line for hours on end to get into a driver’s ed course,” Clisby said.

There were also lines at Westland Insurance and Western Financial Group.

Brett McGregor, president of Guild Insurance Group, said staff did the best they could to get as many people signed up as possible, and that MPI’s small number of openings for the program isn’t the company’s fault.

He said staff were only able to register 14 people, which didn’t include Clisby’s son, before the program’s spots allotted to Brandon agencies were filled up.

Clisby said he and his son will be back in the fall, but called on MPI to rebuild its system.

“They need to revamp it and do something better, maybe hire some more agents,” he said.

Lindsay Keim said she and her son stood in line in without chairs at midnight. People had recommended to get there for 1 a.m., but they didn’t want to take any chances, she said.

“I feel sorry for the kids,” Keim said. “This is awful. I didn’t have to do this with my daughter two years ago, you could just walk in. I’m just glad I don’t have to work today, but he still has school,” she said, referring to her 15-year-old son, Kyran.

Kyran said he had to sit on the ground for most of the wait in the cold, until strangers offered him a chair. Keim said if it weren’t for the Tim Hortons being open next to Guild, it would have been an even harder night.

“We’re just lucky Timmies was open, so we had a bathroom,” she said. “We’re lucky we had that.”

She said she was concerned about how people camping out at other Autopac locations without an overnight restaurant next door were making it through the night.

Keim said porta-potties should have been set up, as MPI knew there would be people camping out ahead of time.

Tara Seel, a spokesperson for MPI, said the Crown corporation doesn’t have enough driving instructors and isn’t able to match how many students are requesting the service.

She said this year there are 588 spots available provincewide for the summer program, up from 312 in 2024. Of those, 384 are in Winnipeg, with the rest divided across the province. There were 72 non-Winnipeg seats last year.

“We’re asking communities to put your hands up and say, ‘You know what? Yeah, I will take the training provided by MPI, and I will be a driving instructor,’” said Seel.

She said if more people sign up to become instructors, which aren’t full-time MPI staff, then the amount of students who would be able to take the course would go up.

Seel said MPI feels the frustration of people like Clisby, and said it hopes community members can apply to take stress off people signing up for the program.

“We feel his frustration, it’s terrible,” said Seel. “The amount of time that he dedicated to trying to get his child a seat, his frustration must be palpable, so we can appreciate that. And I don’t want to take away from that at all, because it’s a very valid feeling.”

Matt Wiebe, minister responsible for MPI, said the NDP government is still “cleaning up the mess” of the previous PC government. He also acknowledged a revolving door of CEOs for MPI didn’t help the situation.

“It’s a priority of mine to fix these issues with Driver Z that were left to us by the previous government,” said Wiebe. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to improve the program.”

Wiebe said MPI almost doubled the number of spots it offered, and has also increased rural pay rates for instructors by 30 per cent. He said the government has also increased the number of courses offered, although he didn’t provide numbers for what an increase meant.

He also said additional vehicles were added to the rural fleet for instructors. A spokesperson later said there were eight more vehicles now in the program.

Wiebe also said he has children who are very close to the age of going through the program. The Sun asked Wiebe if he was planning on spending a night at an Autopac location to register them.

“We’re going to continue to fix the problems left to us by the previous government,” responded Wiebe. “So I’m committed to making sure every parent knows that we’re committed to fixing that mess.”

The Sun also asked Wiebe what he had to say to the people who waited overnight and still didn’t get a spot.

“I know that folks are frustrated with how the PC government handled MPI more generally,” he responded. “I’m sure that there’s a lot of frustration with where they left the state of the Driver Z program on their way out the door.”

The NDP government came to power in October 2023.

“That is just absolute hypocrisy of this minister,” said PC MPI critic Wayne Balcaen. “They’ve been in government for two years. That line might have been good for (the) first three months in government.”

Balcaen, the MLA for Brandon West, where the Guild lineup happened, said if MPI hasn’t been able to find enough staff with 30 per cent pay raises, it’s because that’s not enough.

He also said the situation people had to go through Tuesday night and Wednesday morning was “incredibly unfair.”

Balcaen said he normally loves to see people visit his riding, but that this was different.

“I’m happy to see people coming to Brandon West, but I’m not happy to see them attending there for this reason,” he said.

McGregor said his staff have a stressful day every month or two when registrations happen.

“It is always a little bit of a stressful day for our staff, it always feels really high stakes,” said McGregor.

“When the doors open at eight, it feels like there’s kind of a panicky rush, and (Guild staff) want to process customers as quickly as possible. Because the faster we can get people through, the better the chance of getting all those people in the lineup (registered).”

McGregor said there’s been a little bit of anger targeted at staff, but most people realize it’s not their fault. He said staff don’t like having to be involved in MPI’s process.

He said Guild schedules extra staff for registrations, and makes sure everyone is ready for when the doors open. He said the problem has been happening for about the last three years, although it might be getting “slightly better.”

Owen Stanley, 15, lined up at 10 p.m. Tuesday and was fifth in line. He was one of the 14 students registered for the program at the Victoria Avenue location.

“I’m relieved,” said Stanley. “Definitely well worth it, I guess.”

Stanley said he and his mom packed a blanket, lawn chair, an iPad, books, and food and water to make it through the night.

Stanley said he planned on skipping half a day of school after leaving Guild, after not being able to get a night’s sleep while camping out.

He said getting his licence was a priority though, because then he wouldn’t always have to rely on his parents.

Ty Aldcroft, a Grade 10 student, was right at the front of the line, arriving at 7:30 p.m. He said MPI should be making it easier for people to sign up.

“It’s kind of mixed emotions,” he said. “They (MPI) could definitely make it a bit easier.”

Aldcroft said he had some “fun activities” to last the night, and said as long as he got a spot he would be fine with the overnight wait.

“You know, got to get the learners, got to get the licence,” said Aldcroft.

alambert@brandonsun.com